I would imagine if you were going at Christmas break or Easter or some other very crowded time you would want to make sure you made some reservations but it's not like Disney at all. We've been able to walk up to many places.
I would highly recommend Mythos for a dinner or lunch and would make a reservation for that as it was consistently full while we were there. However, we made our reservation maybe 2 weeks in advance.. not 6 months. We'll be there in 6 weeks and I haven't made any reservations yet.
Counter service at the 3 broomsticks is good. I found the prices VERY high, but the atmosphere is worth it. Also we bought everyone a frozen butter beer which was a huge mistake. We were too full and they were too sweet so I think everyone maybe drank a quarter of it. There was 40 dollars or so we could have saved right there.
We also enjoyed Pastamore in City Walk. The food was average to good but the portions were great and the prices are very reasonable for a theme park.
